Senior executives emphasize a strong ability to inspire and guide others as a most valuable trait in senior leadership candidates.

Globally, half of companies have a succession plan ready should the CEO, or any other member of the management team, depart the organization for another company, step down for health reasons or be terminated. The other half of companies that do not currenty have a plan in place would be unprepared for the unexpected departure of a CEO or other member of the management team.

The survey was conducted by IIC Partners, a global network of indepenedently managed executive search companies, and collected responses from almost 1,300 business leaders from around the world.

"The results are consistent with our observations in Finland," says Heikki Vahtera, Senior Consultant of Finnish-based JFP Executive Search, a member of IIC Partners.

Vahtera said that “Half of companies still looking for leaders of a particular task are not thinking outside of the box. The second half, however, are already thinking about the direction in which the company and its business are headed. In this case, the focus is more on the applicant's personality, ability, and the potential for the company to groom a future leader, who is also interested in career development.”

The survey also found that companies' expectations varied of how long a CEO will remain in office. Survey respondents represented a range of enterprises and geographical locations. Surprisingly, business leaders in the Asia Pacific region are expected to remain with their organization the least amount of time, 5-6 years. Companies in the EMEA and Americas regions expect to retain their top talent for a little longer, 7-8 years.

This variation may be due to the strong economic growth within Asia Pacific where leadership is at a constant shortage. Companies may offer better pay and more interesting work hoping to attract talent. Executives in the professional services industries, tend to spend the longest amount of time with a company. In contrast, pharmaceutical companies have the shortest expectations for retaining top talent, between 5 and 6 years.

According to the survey, senior executives preferred leaders that emphasized the ability to motivate, inspire and lead change. 68% of survey respondents desired these qualities in a senior executive, while only 26% of survey respondents selected performance ability as a preferred characteristic within a senior executive. Companies are also seeking more external talent to provide a fresh perspective within their senior management teams. On average, roughly 40% of current senior management teams are comprised of external candidates. Energy and financial services companies, and companies with under 500 employees are more likely to promote from within and fill a position with an internal candidate.

According to the survey, companies found that the primary force driving change within their organization was new forms of competition. This may be attributed to rise of the digital age, with many companies being conceived in the digital sphere and rising as completely unexpected and unforeseen rivals.

IIC Partners conducted the survey in late 2013 and respondents comprised of 1,270 senior level executives. 62% of respondents were at the C-Suite or Managing Director level. Of the respondents, 520 were from the Americas region, 383 were from the EMEA region and 347 were from the Asia Pacific region. Survey respondents represented 18 different industries.